Weblog entry #134 for Steve
See all weblog entries made by Steve.
I have been considering an idea for a commercial website for the past few years. Partly because I think it would be a useful thing to exist, and partly because I want to run it.
After building half a demo I have people telling me it is a good great idea, and talking about revenue, etc.
(Utterly non-hosting and non-Debian related I should say for people reading this here...)
Now I'm looking into registering a limited liability company and plotting and planning things.
As if I don't already suffer from free-time issues :/
Either way its been in the back of my mind for a couple of years, and for three years running I've done a "seasonal" version of the site for a small audience, so I know how it should work and I know the kind of problems I'll have.
Technology is easy, its the audience and users that are hard work. Always!
Anyway .. I've decided to spend the next three months working on the site/idea. That way I'll have it out one way or another.
Comments on this Entry
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This is your final aim
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You're funny.
But wrong.
Arguing with anonymous people is pointless. Feel free to come back when you have some constructive things to say, or the honestly to post with your name.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Finally fact is you want to do business using this that is true.
Your heart knows the truth.
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You seem to be arguing that Steve is immoral airing non-debian commercial thoughts on a non-commercial debian site.
If non-debian work is of overall benefit to the people on this site, that is entirely within the spirit of GNU. If it is of no benefit to debian or the people of this site, then it is irrelevant. If it is harmful to debian or the people of this site, then, and only then, is it immoral.
It seems pretty clear to me that the first case is the most likely - Steve has his head screwed on right. Making money commercially is a freedom that is certainly compatible with GNU principles, and is actually one of the reasons why GPL software thrives.
GNU is about free as in freedom/speech, not free as in money/beer/labour, even though the latter does often end up part of the package deal.
The freedom part is the important bit. Not the money part.
PJ
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The odd thing is that I would say that the main issues is with the users (when there's enough, ie a critical mass of them) and with the content. I recall you have posted a call for more content heer a couple of times.
Well...think it through and then jump into it - I'm sure it'll cost you plenty of nights, but hopefully it will pay back either monetary of selffulfillingly (is that an English word?).
At least, that is what I hope.
Christian
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Some kinds of content people easily create and share for free all the time, eg pictures on sites like flicker.
Getting people to write here has always been harder than I expected, although we certainly have enough members, so I'm not assuming I'll get too much immediate content on the new site straight away. Having said that though I can't see it failing.
I guess we just need to wait and see. And of course I need to finish working on the site!
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